Law requiring licensing of non-banking lenders in the works

NON-banking lenders will not be allowed to do business in Slovakia without a licence issued by the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS), the country’s central bank. This stems from the draft amendment to the law on consumer loans, which the Finance Ministry submitted to interdepartmental review. The change aims to increase transparency and performance of control on the market with consumer loans, the SITA newswire reported on July 21.

NON-banking lenders will not be allowed to do business in Slovakia without a licence issued by the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS), the country’s central bank. This stems from the draft amendment to the law on consumer loans, which the Finance Ministry submitted to interdepartmental review. The change aims to increase transparency and performance of control on the market with consumer loans, the SITA newswire reported on July 21.

The ministry is setting conditions that would require lenders to obtain permission to provide consumer loans. In the case of non-banking lenders, this procedure will replace having to register on the list of creditors. Banks will not have to ask for the licence. The NBS will check and supervise the activities of creditors offering consumer loans, as reported by SITA.

Moreover, there will be two types of licences: limited and unlimited. Those with limited licences will not be able to provide consumer loans higher than €10,000. For an unlimited licence, firms will have to be registered as limited liability or joint-stock companies, and will have to establish a supervisory board. Such companies will have to have basic capital of at least €100,000 and will have to prove the origin of the capital and the financial sources from which they will provide loans. The firms will also be required to keep the amount of basic capital during the period in which it provides consumer loans, SITA wrote.

The amendment also proposes to establish an electronic information registry for consumer loans to better assess clients’ ability to pay off a loan. The register will be open to all creditors, who will be obliged to assess the information when setting conditions for a loan.

If passed by the government and parliament, the new measures will come into force on January 1, 2015.

Source: SITA

Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports

The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.

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